Mindy Kaling Helps Anne Hathaway Be More Insecure In Her New Romantic Comedy

Should Anne Hathaway be investing in a good pair of glasses, and maybe digging out her old Princess Diaries wig? The Hollywood Reporter just announced that the newlywed will be starring in The Low Self-Esteem of Lizzie Gillespie, a romantic comedy written by Mindy Kaling and Brent Forrester (another writer from The Office). The two have been developing the script since 2009, and at one point it made its way onto The Black List, but only now does it seem ready to be turned into a movie.

But judging from the synopsis, I’m a little surprised they chose Anne as the titular singleton:

The story centers on a woman whose lack of self-worth has limited her choice in men to losers. When she is about to hit the bottom of the barrel, life takes an unexpected turn when she is pursued by the hottest guy ever.

Anne can play quirky fairly well, in Valentine’s Day, Love and Other Drugs, and One Day. But only in the latter was she supposed to be unattractive, and they didn’t even make her as chubby as her character in the book. It will be a disconnect for audiences to relate to Anne’s character as basically the female version of Jay Baruchel in She’s Out of My League, as someone so plagued with self-doubt that she’s unable to realize how pretty she actually is.

At least, that’s what I would have said before The Mindy Project premiered. After seeing a few episodes of Mindy’s sitcom — where she plays the protagonist who’s seen one too many rom-coms — I have more faith that Mindy can authentically write a heroine who’s beautiful but has been battered by so much romantic disappointment that she’s in a rut. Things could even get a little dark, especially since an alternate logline says that Lizzie must wrestle with her insecurity when the guy in question denies that they’re dating.

No word yet on who the guy will be! Maybe it’s personal preference or because I wrote about them yesterday, but can I put forward Ryan Gosling or Michael Fassbender? I’d love to see either in a comedy again.